When studying Bellydance techniques, remember that they are meant to be tools for us to connect with our music and our inner being so that through authentic, exalted expression we can hook ourselves and our audiences to a higher vibration.

When we get "in the zone" during an inspired improvisational performance we, and our audience, forget which techniques were used to put us into this elevated state. What is remembered is what was felt by us and what was felt by the audience as a result of being bonded together during this creative process.

To me this does not mean that we shouldn't be excited about collecting and honing techniques. But it could mean that we need not be held back or held prisoner by overly focussing on collecting more and more techniques, without ever finding and sharing the depth of our potential expression.

As women in our Bellydance industry, we have an opportunity to treat our art and each other with ever increasing love and respect. Let's try not to fall prey to or propagate a purely superficial approach that can trap us and our goddess sisters in a box. Rather than being part of that game, let's keep breaking that cycle and direct our energy toward truth and healing and creativity.

Once we find an empowered track, our feelings of competition with regard to technique fall away and we find that when we dance in our truth, we spontaneously create brand new techniques during our improvs. Discovering that there is a well spring within us that allows abundant and endless creativity helps us to confidently celebrate and be inspired by others when they tap into the same. Let's remember, it's not what the dancer is dancing, it's how she is making us feel as she is dancing.​The highest levels of expression and inspiration await us within our fundamental techniques. The rest is there for us to call into our improvs when it's what we need to continue our expression, versus what we feel we must do to compete. I hope these thoughts continue to free each of you who come to Bellydance to find, nurture, and unleash the goddess within.

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Aboutauthor

- Ansuya Rathor is a superstar of Bellydance, a certified Yoga instructor, and a burgeoning writer who loves to share the empowerment that comes from unleashing the goddess within with women around the world!